Note Sheets for Final Exams

There has been some confusion about what exactly you are allowed to put on your note sheet for the Final Exam. Here is a quick guide to what you CANNOT put on the sheet.

Here, once again, are the the things you are NOT allowed to do:



  • No photocopying, computers, or other technology



  • No paper bigger than 8½'' × 11''


  • No worked-out-examples

The biggest problem has been with worked-out-examples (WOEs), so I have given examples below. Remember, these are things you are NOT supposed to do. There is also commentary below, so pay attention!


(Yes, someone actually used the note card, without writing notes on their own!)

From Precalculus: (inverse function)

From Precalculus: (solving an exponential equation)

From Precalculus: (sides of a triangle)

From Calculus I: (limits)

Note that, if the student had written: "If you are finding the limit of a rational function, which is 0/0, then factor the numerator and denominator, factor, cancel, and substitute", that would have been okay.

From Calculus I: (implicit differentiation)

From Calculus I: (approximate integration)

From Calculus II: (area calculation)

From Calculus II:

Bribing your teacher is always a bad idea.

From Linear Algebra: (matrix arithmetic)

From Linear Algebra: (solving the closest vector problem)

Actually, this is okay; this is an example of how to write out a procedure without working an example. (Notice that there are no specific vectors here. BTW, method #1 only works if you have an orthogonal basis.)